No words can describe the numerous emotions I felt felt over the past few days staying in teh Ukraine... There were times when I was happy, sad, shocked,overwhelmed, and extremely angered... In this entry I am going to do my best to describe my weekend to you in as much detail what I saw and felt, but what I write will not do justice to what I really truly experienced over the past 4 days.
Friday- We arrived in the Ukraine at about 7pm after having travelled in the van since 7 am... it was a long day! We were able to make some stops, and visited a famous Romanian authors home which had been turned into a small museum, so that was fun. When we arrived in the Ukraine we were greeted by Vira and she took us to the facility that we were staying at for the weekend. We stayed at a Young Life center. I had never heard of the organization Young Life, but apparetnly they are all over the U.S and have open centers in which High School kids can come and hang otu and participate in weekly youth group type meetings... its an amazing ministry. So after we put our stuff in our rooms we went out to eat at this Turkish pizza place.... best pizza I have ever had.. end of story! :) After that we went back to the Young life center and planned for Saturday.
Vira is the woman we went to support and encourage. She is in her mid thirties, and has such a wonderful ministry. She has travelled teh world, and even lived in the states fora while. She is a trained opera singer, and that is what she went to school for. About 5 years ago she really felt the Lord tugging on her heart and telling her to go back "home" and do work. So.. she stopped singing because she realized that to really make it big, she would have to be Russian... so she felt that God was pulling her away from that and she was okay with it. So.. she left where she was living at the time and went back to the Ukraine. She was working and became involved with a church and helped otu there... then she felt the Lord telling her once again, " go HOME." She then went back to the city in which she grew up to start a new ministry. She runs a group that meets twice a month. It is a group for children with disabilties and for their mothers. It is 4 hours each time they meet. The program offeres a place and at ime for the childrent o get together and learn, and listen to a bible story, and to play or do a craft. It is wonderful for the kids, and it is also fabulous for the parents! In the beginning of the time, there is an hour for the kids adn mothers to do an activity together then they split up.. the mothers go upstairs and have a sort of support group/bible study. It is a time for them to talk to each other without shame, and they are just wonderful to each other. They can talk about life, and their situations very openly without judgement from anyone else. Both the kids and the mothers really enjoy their time every two saturdays... Vira is now in the process of raising money to actually buy a building- they are currently renting the space from Young Life, and it is wonderful for the time being but it would be amazing to have their own place and offer occupational therapy and other services on top of the the club that meets. She really has wonderful vision about the program, and about these families in General. She is a very spunky and fun woman of God, and it was such an encouragement to meet her and get to know her better. She is a person that belives in Love.... all you need is love... all these kids need is love.... all these mothers need is love....
Saturday- This is the day that we were actually able to interact with all of these clients Vira was telling us all about !! I was soo excited and so nervous! I wasnt sure how the children, and their parents would take to us because so often parents put up guards about their children and who they are in contact with whether the child is diabled or not. Both the parents and the kids took to us very well. We played bingo with the kids, and colored, and made this really cool craft.... but most of all- we loved them , and hugged them, and tickeled them, and smiled and laughed with them. We each kind of took a kid under our wing for the few hours we were with them. The little boy I stayed with the whole time was named Ruoma. He was so beautiful and he had the biggest, boldest, happiest eyes. When he was carried in teh room i fell in love, my heart just absolutely melted. Ruomas mother is probably in her early to mid 30's and has 3 children. There is Ruomas oldest brother who was about 11, Ruoma who is about 6 or 7 and his youngest brother who is a little over a year. All three boys are beautiful. Vira told me that the mother was thinking about aborting the third boy after she found otu she was pregnant because she was fearful of having another child with disablities. Vira prayed with her and advised her not to give up the child, and she didnt... the baby is perfectly healthy :) Ruomas older brother has been such a blessing to his mother... He came to the program as well, and was such a huge help. Ruoma loves, and relies on his brother alot. It made me so happy to see such a wonderful and mature 11/12 yr old helping out with their younger brother... but then it also saddened me because he has had to grow up so fast, and has to help out with so many things that other 12 year old boys will never have to deal with in their whole lives.... The program was great... i have so much more to write, so I wont go any further about Saturday but I would love to answer questions if u have any :)
Sunday- Sunday was probably the hardest day for me... yeah... definately the hardest. This was the day that we visited a nursing home and a facility for boys ages 5-35 who had mental and phsyical disablities. Yeah... here goes...
Nursing Home- So we walked into the nursing home.... the floors were still wet from the "quick mop job" the workers had just done to make the place resemble cleanliness.... The director of the facility greeted us, and is a great individual. He really ahs truly worked so hard to try to turn around the way this facility is run. He has only been around for a short time, and is trying to correct all the awful things the previous director put in place. He took us up to the 4th floor of the facility which had just been re-done. It was beautiful! Amazing walls, beds,.... everything was perfect! It was even nicer than some of the "nice" faciliites back in America.. I was thoroughly impressed.... then I found out that this floor would only be for temporary rehab patients and it wouldnt be opened for a few more months... so that was disappointing... Then we checked into reality once we got to the third floor.
The staff at the facility was clearly not very happy that we were there to see what their "work" or lack there of, was like... We ended up splitting into two groups... Bekah, Elena, Jess and Shannon stayed at one wing, and Dorothy, Mel, Maggie, Vira and myself went to another wing. Dorothy and I went room to room... and Mel&Mags worked ont eh bathrooms. We cleaned every room we went in and listened to the people even though we couldnt udnerstand a single thing... and we loved them and smiled, and hugged, and held their hands. We also sang to a few- i think they liked that alot :) The rooms were filthy and smelled horrible, and most of the people living in this facility hadnt had a visitor in years... and it was noticeable.... So as Dorothy and I were going room to room we came to the next room we were supposed to clean, and the woman who was in that room was standing their half naked with her dress pulled up over her head, and a worker chekcing her diaper and was starting to undo it as we wer standing there... so we walked away for af ew moments, adn teh worker walked out of theroom so we thought she was done... she wasnt.... she left the patient standing there leaning over her bed soiled and exposed with her door open to the world... It broke my heart... I cant imagine the feelings of embarassment she must have felt, and how embarassed If elt for her.... the worker eventally came back with a new diaper and changed her so we proceeded to go to differnt rooms... When we came back to this womans room she was in shock that we actually came back bc she was so humiliated...Vira asked her how she was, and was trying to have simple conversatin with her, and teh woman said she just doesnt care and basically was saying that shed rather die than be in this place. She didnt have any family, and you could see the sadness in her beautiful blue eyes. I went over and hugged her and sat with her foa while just holding her hand and smiling at her and making eye contact with her and she started crying. She didnt want me to leave, but I had do... in those few moments we shared together I felt sucha connection with this woman, and did not want to leave her...It was really a life changing experience going to that nursing home... I will never forget those 4 hours of my life.... ever
Boys Home for disabled boys 5-35~
I will finish this tomorrow or at some other point when I have time... I have to go now, but i promise to Finish this entry eventually!!! :)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
3/28- pray
Szerenke', the Kindergarten teacher I work with everyday just found out some horrible news this morning during devotions. Over the past two months we have been praying for her 19 year old cousin who was in the hospital with Leukemia (sp). A few weeks ago he showed alot of progress, and they thought that it was going to be for the better. Yesterday he lost all feeling from his waist-up. He was paralyzed. This has been such a burden on her heart, as well as many of the staff here at Veritas. She found out this morning that he has passed away. If you think of it, please pray for Szerenke' and her family... I cant even imagine how hard it is on her right now to have such a young member of her family die of such an awful disease. Thanks.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
3/27
So... random/ funny fact of the day..... In romania, they dont believe in plain white toilet paper... The toilet paper here is colored and scented... on a rare occasion you will find TP that is white BUT it is scented....and you can get colored TP that isnt scented.... heh... its funny.... I guess they like everything to be pretty in some way :) haha....
On a more serious... very serious note.... Monday night at dinner with Dorothy and Roberta, Mel and Karen I learned that one of the girls from Tigmandru is missing. She is a 13 year old girl with beautiful blonde hair. This girl has particpated in our childrens program out in Tigmandru, and now participates in the Teen program there as well. She has been missing now for over a week. For the first few days she was missing, a few policemen were looking for her but I am unsure as to whether they are still looking,or if they just gave up.... It is such a frightening thing because this she comes from such a small village where everyone knows each other, and knows everyone elses buisness.... but no one knows where she is.... Her grandmother is very distraught right now, as imagined.. and it is very hard for her, as well as the Naz church in Tigmandru. There are thoughts that she could have possibly been picked up on teh street and taken for trafficking or something of that nature because she has developed alot physically over the past year. When Roberta told us all this news on Monday, she showed us a picture of the girl.... she looked like she was about 6 or 7.... That is because it was the only picture her grandmother actually HAD of her.... it was the only way of identifying this girl- and she looks completely different now, except for the blonde beautiful hair and big eyes.... Luckily Karen knew that she had recent pictures of her from Teen group, so she will be making photo copies and sending them out to neighboring villages, and will give them to the police. Who would have thought that as an American that I would take simple "pictures" for granted? Maybe there is more of a possibility that this girl will be found because KAren has that picture of her..... Bakc home, we dont really have this problem.... EVERYONE has picutres of everyone else! heh... i know that I sure do... i LOVE pictures... and if someone was missing, another person would definately have a picture of them that was recent, and if not... then we have such advanced technology that we can take an old picture and make them look older based on genetics, age, etc..... The things we take for granted, eh? If you are reading this please pray for the village of Tigmandru and for this girl- her name is Lenuta (La-noot-sa). Thanks
On a more serious... very serious note.... Monday night at dinner with Dorothy and Roberta, Mel and Karen I learned that one of the girls from Tigmandru is missing. She is a 13 year old girl with beautiful blonde hair. This girl has particpated in our childrens program out in Tigmandru, and now participates in the Teen program there as well. She has been missing now for over a week. For the first few days she was missing, a few policemen were looking for her but I am unsure as to whether they are still looking,or if they just gave up.... It is such a frightening thing because this she comes from such a small village where everyone knows each other, and knows everyone elses buisness.... but no one knows where she is.... Her grandmother is very distraught right now, as imagined.. and it is very hard for her, as well as the Naz church in Tigmandru. There are thoughts that she could have possibly been picked up on teh street and taken for trafficking or something of that nature because she has developed alot physically over the past year. When Roberta told us all this news on Monday, she showed us a picture of the girl.... she looked like she was about 6 or 7.... That is because it was the only picture her grandmother actually HAD of her.... it was the only way of identifying this girl- and she looks completely different now, except for the blonde beautiful hair and big eyes.... Luckily Karen knew that she had recent pictures of her from Teen group, so she will be making photo copies and sending them out to neighboring villages, and will give them to the police. Who would have thought that as an American that I would take simple "pictures" for granted? Maybe there is more of a possibility that this girl will be found because KAren has that picture of her..... Bakc home, we dont really have this problem.... EVERYONE has picutres of everyone else! heh... i know that I sure do... i LOVE pictures... and if someone was missing, another person would definately have a picture of them that was recent, and if not... then we have such advanced technology that we can take an old picture and make them look older based on genetics, age, etc..... The things we take for granted, eh? If you are reading this please pray for the village of Tigmandru and for this girl- her name is Lenuta (La-noot-sa). Thanks
Monday, March 24, 2008
3/24
So.. I guess it is aobut that time when I should write in this thing again!!! :)
Well lets see...Not this past weekend, but the weekend before... I went on a hike! :) It was absolutely amazing. The view was wonderful!! The day started out horribly, it was wet, windy, and very icy so we went into the city of Brasov to wait it out for a few hours. While in Brasov we got some coffee, visited some of the historical churches, and browsed around . By the end of those few hours the sky had really cleared up, so we decided to go for it! I love hiking,I really do... but Romania has really made me despise snow and ice! For about 95% of teh hike I had either thick snow, or ice underneath my feet. It was quite challenging and VERY slippery... heh... when we were coming down I just wanted to take off my jacket and slide down becuase it was so hard to actually grip my feet! haha... I will try to post some pictures from that day :)
The day before we went on the hike my other host sister, Alexandra came home! She has been in Germany since September doing an exchange program for HS students, and she is on her spring break! This is her last week home, and I hate to see her go! She has been such a joy to have around the house, and is so much fun to hang out with!!
So....last week I realized that I wouldnt be having an Easter celebration this year because I am leaving before Orthodox Easter (which the romanians celebrate), and the Hungarian, and Germans, and Americans and whoever else celebrated Easter this past week! (yesterday) So... I decided that this just wouldnt happen! I just really felt the need and want to participate in some form of Easter service.... so Mel, Dorothy and I decided to go to the German Lutheran Easter Service at the church on the hill. I had to wake up at 545 because teh service was at 7 am, and it is quite a walk to the top of the hill! :) It was such an amazing service! It reminded me of a sunrise service back home. The wicked cool thing about this service though is that it begins in teh back of the church... everyone walks in together, and we sang a song. Then there were doors in the ground that opened up to a staircase...we walked down these steps and entered the crypt. For those of you who dont know what that is- it is where they used to keep the dead... Yeah, but anywyas... we went into the crypt (kind of like being in the tomb) and had some candles dispersed throughout to give off a sense of light. After some scripture readings, and some songs we went back into the sanctuary that was lit and sang some more songs, and read more scripture etc. It was wonderful.
After the service, everyone was invited to go to breakfast at the parish house. It was lovely. Everyone was given a red hard boiled egg, and as much sweet bread and coffee/tea as we liked! We all sat at this HUGE table... like 25 ppl on each side! It reminded me of the Waldon family Christmas! haha... But anways... I asked Dorothy about the red eggs... because I thought that was kind of random. I guess that the Romanians believe that one of the"mary's" brought a basket of red eggs (representing christs blood) to the tomb the day that they went to visit Jesus' grave.... so the tradition is to dye eggs Red, and eat them on Easter! :)
Yeah.... so those are some of the highlights from the past 10 days! :) Hope you enjoyed some of it! :) love and miss you all <3
Well lets see...Not this past weekend, but the weekend before... I went on a hike! :) It was absolutely amazing. The view was wonderful!! The day started out horribly, it was wet, windy, and very icy so we went into the city of Brasov to wait it out for a few hours. While in Brasov we got some coffee, visited some of the historical churches, and browsed around . By the end of those few hours the sky had really cleared up, so we decided to go for it! I love hiking,I really do... but Romania has really made me despise snow and ice! For about 95% of teh hike I had either thick snow, or ice underneath my feet. It was quite challenging and VERY slippery... heh... when we were coming down I just wanted to take off my jacket and slide down becuase it was so hard to actually grip my feet! haha... I will try to post some pictures from that day :)
The day before we went on the hike my other host sister, Alexandra came home! She has been in Germany since September doing an exchange program for HS students, and she is on her spring break! This is her last week home, and I hate to see her go! She has been such a joy to have around the house, and is so much fun to hang out with!!
So....last week I realized that I wouldnt be having an Easter celebration this year because I am leaving before Orthodox Easter (which the romanians celebrate), and the Hungarian, and Germans, and Americans and whoever else celebrated Easter this past week! (yesterday) So... I decided that this just wouldnt happen! I just really felt the need and want to participate in some form of Easter service.... so Mel, Dorothy and I decided to go to the German Lutheran Easter Service at the church on the hill. I had to wake up at 545 because teh service was at 7 am, and it is quite a walk to the top of the hill! :) It was such an amazing service! It reminded me of a sunrise service back home. The wicked cool thing about this service though is that it begins in teh back of the church... everyone walks in together, and we sang a song. Then there were doors in the ground that opened up to a staircase...we walked down these steps and entered the crypt. For those of you who dont know what that is- it is where they used to keep the dead... Yeah, but anywyas... we went into the crypt (kind of like being in the tomb) and had some candles dispersed throughout to give off a sense of light. After some scripture readings, and some songs we went back into the sanctuary that was lit and sang some more songs, and read more scripture etc. It was wonderful.
After the service, everyone was invited to go to breakfast at the parish house. It was lovely. Everyone was given a red hard boiled egg, and as much sweet bread and coffee/tea as we liked! We all sat at this HUGE table... like 25 ppl on each side! It reminded me of the Waldon family Christmas! haha... But anways... I asked Dorothy about the red eggs... because I thought that was kind of random. I guess that the Romanians believe that one of the"mary's" brought a basket of red eggs (representing christs blood) to the tomb the day that they went to visit Jesus' grave.... so the tradition is to dye eggs Red, and eat them on Easter! :)
Yeah.... so those are some of the highlights from the past 10 days! :) Hope you enjoyed some of it! :) love and miss you all <3
Friday, March 14, 2008
3/14
So.. this week hasnt been too exciting, but I cant believe how quickly the week has passed by! I cant believe how quickly this whole experience has gone by!! Only 6 weeks left, I think? Wow! It is crazy to think about! Nothing out of the normal really happened this week. I had my usual days filled with children at the Kindergarten, and afternoons filled with special needs club, parent meetings, meetings with Dorothy, and of course... homework! Haha.. .cant forget that one!
I guess there was one really cool thing that happened this week... I assume that most of you reading this blog have seen children cry- and if you know me at all, you have probably witnessed me crying a million times! ;) But have you ever seen a 6 year old cry out of pure joy, and exasperation? I have seen adults, and teenagers cry out of pure joy... but never a child. WEll, at the end of the day in the Kindergarten we give the children different colored "dots" to put on their shirts to show how well they behaved during the day. A red dot is for good behavior,, and a black dot is for bad behavior, and after 7 red dots the child receives a gold star! Well, anyways... there is one child in the Kindergarten that is almost always bad during the day... he tends to talk back, distract the other children, gets violent, and just misbehaves all around. He kind of has been labeled the "bad kid" in the Kindergarten. WEll, the other day he just had this amazing change in behavior ( partially because there was a college age male helping in the room for the day- which works WONDERS on these little boys) and he was fairly good all day. This is a child who doesnt let us give him pats on the back, rarely responds well to even positive feedback- he truly feels like he has to live out his "label." Well, he was good and the teacher had given him a black dot ( i think it may have been out of habit) and i told her that he was good- so she called him over and gave him a red dot! He was sooo excited, and shocked! Tears filled this childs eyes, and he didnt know what to do with himself. He was so excited that we had noticed that he was trying, and was actually behaving for a change... This made his day, even his week! When I saw his face, I couldnt help but cry. I have never seen a child react like this to something that seems soo meaningless to the other kids in the class. Most of the time everyone else gets red dots- so its just "normal" to them, but to this child it meant EVERYTHING. It kind of reminded me of teh Max Lucado book that my Mom really likes- I forget what it is called.. but yeah... It was great to witness such an awesome moment with this child.
Another thing that particularly struck me ( i sort of mentioned above) is the importance of having a positive male influence. It is so rare for these children to have positive male role mdels in their lives. Within this particular group of kids, Most of the men they encounter (fathers, grandfathers) have a tendency to mistreat women and the child as well. It is just so important for men to be present. But that is a discussion for another day :) Im much better at verbalizing my feelings, than actually writing them down...
Yeah... so I guess that was the highlight of my week :) I am also going on a pretty intense hike tomorrow, and I am really excited about it! I have seen pictures, and it is going to be beautiful!!!!! I am looking forward to taking pics and posting them!! :)
I am at the point where I really miss everyone, and everything from home... Dont get me wrong, I love it here! It has just been two months, and it is just getting harder to not think about home. I try as hard as possible not to think about it because I want to make my time here the best it can possibly be- so I am continuing to put 100% effort into everything I am doing here, but its not easy keeping my feelings of longing for home hidden... I am so glad that I am here, and I wouldnt want it any other way, honestly. I feel like I am learning so much, and am doing so much more than I would be doing back in the states if that is where I had decided to do my practicum. I have fallen in love with Romania, and the people here. It is just hard to know that in a little over a month that I will be leaving them. It is so hard to know how to balance my relationshiups with these people (both colleagues, clients, and friends) - and also be okay with leaving them.. It feels like just as these people are starting to love, and trust me... I will be leaving them. It is hard not to feel like I am abandoning them. Some of the people I work with in club see me as one of their friends.. .and some of the kids receive there "daily hugs" from me... instead of at home. It is just alot to think about and pray about.....
Sorry my thoughts are so random, and arent always clear... I do not write very well, unless it is a paper with a clear outline etc. hahaha.... thanks for bearing with me!
Until next time... la revedere!
I guess there was one really cool thing that happened this week... I assume that most of you reading this blog have seen children cry- and if you know me at all, you have probably witnessed me crying a million times! ;) But have you ever seen a 6 year old cry out of pure joy, and exasperation? I have seen adults, and teenagers cry out of pure joy... but never a child. WEll, at the end of the day in the Kindergarten we give the children different colored "dots" to put on their shirts to show how well they behaved during the day. A red dot is for good behavior,, and a black dot is for bad behavior, and after 7 red dots the child receives a gold star! Well, anyways... there is one child in the Kindergarten that is almost always bad during the day... he tends to talk back, distract the other children, gets violent, and just misbehaves all around. He kind of has been labeled the "bad kid" in the Kindergarten. WEll, the other day he just had this amazing change in behavior ( partially because there was a college age male helping in the room for the day- which works WONDERS on these little boys) and he was fairly good all day. This is a child who doesnt let us give him pats on the back, rarely responds well to even positive feedback- he truly feels like he has to live out his "label." Well, he was good and the teacher had given him a black dot ( i think it may have been out of habit) and i told her that he was good- so she called him over and gave him a red dot! He was sooo excited, and shocked! Tears filled this childs eyes, and he didnt know what to do with himself. He was so excited that we had noticed that he was trying, and was actually behaving for a change... This made his day, even his week! When I saw his face, I couldnt help but cry. I have never seen a child react like this to something that seems soo meaningless to the other kids in the class. Most of the time everyone else gets red dots- so its just "normal" to them, but to this child it meant EVERYTHING. It kind of reminded me of teh Max Lucado book that my Mom really likes- I forget what it is called.. but yeah... It was great to witness such an awesome moment with this child.
Another thing that particularly struck me ( i sort of mentioned above) is the importance of having a positive male influence. It is so rare for these children to have positive male role mdels in their lives. Within this particular group of kids, Most of the men they encounter (fathers, grandfathers) have a tendency to mistreat women and the child as well. It is just so important for men to be present. But that is a discussion for another day :) Im much better at verbalizing my feelings, than actually writing them down...
Yeah... so I guess that was the highlight of my week :) I am also going on a pretty intense hike tomorrow, and I am really excited about it! I have seen pictures, and it is going to be beautiful!!!!! I am looking forward to taking pics and posting them!! :)
I am at the point where I really miss everyone, and everything from home... Dont get me wrong, I love it here! It has just been two months, and it is just getting harder to not think about home. I try as hard as possible not to think about it because I want to make my time here the best it can possibly be- so I am continuing to put 100% effort into everything I am doing here, but its not easy keeping my feelings of longing for home hidden... I am so glad that I am here, and I wouldnt want it any other way, honestly. I feel like I am learning so much, and am doing so much more than I would be doing back in the states if that is where I had decided to do my practicum. I have fallen in love with Romania, and the people here. It is just hard to know that in a little over a month that I will be leaving them. It is so hard to know how to balance my relationshiups with these people (both colleagues, clients, and friends) - and also be okay with leaving them.. It feels like just as these people are starting to love, and trust me... I will be leaving them. It is hard not to feel like I am abandoning them. Some of the people I work with in club see me as one of their friends.. .and some of the kids receive there "daily hugs" from me... instead of at home. It is just alot to think about and pray about.....
Sorry my thoughts are so random, and arent always clear... I do not write very well, unless it is a paper with a clear outline etc. hahaha.... thanks for bearing with me!
Until next time... la revedere!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
3/6
So I figured it was about time to update this blog because I had a few dear souls tell me that I needed to, and Junior just recently sent out a message on facebook to everyone telling them to check out my blog- and to their disappointment I don’t have much on here! ( I should probably stop babbling and start informing! ) At this moment in time I cant remember where I left off because I am writing this entry in Word and will then copy and paste it onto my blog when I have the internet J I guess I will just have to generalize some things and describe some of my most recent endeavors!
Well I am pretty sure that I wrote already about
After visiting Sinaia we went to
On a more serious note… last week we had our first parents meeting for the children in the Kindergartens parents. It went really well!! All but 2 parents showed up!! It was very exciting to have such a great response! I opened with a game, and broke the ice a little bit which was very comforting for all the parents, I think. The parents spoke up about things that they were feeling, and were talking about their children and were open about things- it was awesome!! We will be having our 2nd meeting today ( 3/5) and I will be presenting on the topic of the importance of Affirmation and Affection with children. I am really nervous about the whole thing because I was kind of put on the spot about doing it- which was really frustrating… but Im doing it anyways with a smile on my face!
This past weekend we went to Praid and Korund. It was such a great day- despite the rain! We visited the salt mine in Praid! It was SO cool. For medical purposes doctors used to send patients down to the salt mines for healing- they believed that it helped cleanse the body, and for most it really did work! When you go down there is the usual souvenir shop, but there are also picnic tables for people, doctors to visit, massage therapists, playgrounds for children, places to rollerblade, a small museum, a coffee shop, and a church! It was amazing, and it is all underground- it was like a little utopian society down there! After visiting the salt mine we went to Korund where Ï bought some souvenirs for friends and family! J I am really excited about the gift I got for my mom!!! I would totally say what it is on here except for the fact that I know she reads this thing!! Haha.
I am really excited for this weekend- I don’t know why! I think its because on Saturday we are having a church work day- gotta love those (Right Autilio?)( he probably doesn’t even read this- but those who know him better be laughing right now! J) Anyways- we are painting the interior of the church, and I am really excited about it! No more pale blue!!! It will be a fun day- I like to paint, and I really enjoy doing things like this for other people, so we shall see how it goes! J
If you think about it- keep Veritas in your prayers. We are figuring out some financial things right now with grants and other such things. We are planning on tearing down the family center and rebuilding a nice new building for Veritas that can be used for more activities and will have more space, but there are so many restrictions and weird laws in Romania that are not helping make this an easy or even somewhat easy process. Thanks… I think that is all for now!! I will try not to go a couples weeks before I write in this again!! I appreciate all your prayers so much! I love and miss you all!
Shout outs for the day***
Love you Mom and Dad and Mikey and Junior
Miss you 410- sorry im not there to help plan wedding stuff I love you girls <3>
Miss you Cara*
Good luck to everyone in the SGA election process- praying for all of you guys! (especially My babe, and Hil!!! )
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